Original Guns N' Roses Member Blames Axl Rose For Break Up

Original Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler said in a recent interview that he believes he and other members of the band were "fired" because frontman Axl Rose "wanted to take control of everything."

Adler was the first of the classic lineup to part ways with the group and it has usually been attributed to his inability to perform due to drug abuse but he told the One On One With Mitch Lafon podcast his theory behind the reason he was fired, "If people think that I got kicked out of Guns N' Roses for doing drugs, they are so mistaken. Everybody in that band was doing drugs. I was doing less than anybody.

"I got kicked out of the band, and Izzy got kicked out of the band, and then Slash and Duff did, because Axl wanted to take control of everything. He wanted to own the name, he wanted to be the only person who gets paid for the songs.

"He wanted to be the manager, the accountant and everything, when all he needs to do is get up there and sing like a motherf***er that he does. But he wanted to own and control everything like Elton John. He wanted to be like Elton John or Billy Joel.

"That's where the whole piano thing came in. He wanted to be a piano man, which is cool, but that's not Guns N' Roses. Leave Guns N' Roses the way it is, and then you do solo albums, like all musicians in other bands do. But that's what he wanted to do, and that's what happened.

"So I was the first to go, 'cause I was the easiest one; I was the nicest guy. They tricked me. They had me sign some contract with my lawyer there at the office. And I was completely sick at the time. And I had no idea I was signing my rights away, rights to the name, my royalties.

"They wanted to basically give me two thousand dollars and throw me in the street. And thank God my mom realized what happened and she got a lawyer for me. And thank God everything got taken care of." Check out the full interview here